For Queen and Kingdom
by englishwhaler
Summary: Having survived the Eternal Winter and rediscovered themselves, Elsa and Anna work to protect their kingdom of Arendelle from foreign encroachment and find that their greatest strength - and love – is from each other.
1. Prologue

**For Queen and Kingdom**

by englishwhaler

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><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: Hello everyone! This is my first official foray into the world of fan fiction so please bear with me if I stumble my way around or fall down completely in the course of this. I'm relatively new to this fandom but fell in love with it after watching the movie and reading so many terrific works from other fans. I was floored by the sheer emotional impact such works had and would like to thank Kurrent ("Feel Don't Conceal"), FrozenFractals ("Frozen Fractals"), and JessicaX ("Min Søster Bursdagskake") for inspiring me to give it a go for myself.

I'm drawing additional inspiration from Naomi Novik's absolutely terrific _Temeraire _series (which if you haven't read, and you like dragons and/or 19th Century warfare, you totally should)and will (most likely) be exploring matters related to politics and military stuff. If that's not your cup of tea, totally understand and no hard feelings. I'm really interested in seeing how Elsa's powers, her relationship with Anna, and her responsibilities as monarch would play out if placed in a slightly less Disney setting. As such, this story takes place somewhere between 1795-1815.

I welcome any and all constructive feedback and criticism and would really appreciate any that you might give me as I am always looking to learn and grow. Thanks!

_Disclaimer_: As always, _**Frozen **_and all associated **copyrights** and **trademarks** belong to **The Walt Disney Company**. This work is rated **M **as it may include graphic depictions of violence and sex and other material (including, but not limited to, Elsanna) that some may find uncomfortable. I will do my best to provide warnings within each chapter as we go forward but if any of the above does not sit well with you please feel free to walk away. Reading should be fun, so don't continue reading this if you find that it isn't.

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Darkness.

A dull ache reverberated throughout her skull and she tried to think, to summon up some thought, any thought. Her mind swam in shadows and her head felt heavy, so very heavy. Her eyes burned and her mouth tasted like copper. She tried to swallow, tried to breathe, but a mixture of gunk and hot air choked her and she gagged, coughing.

Abdominal muscles twisted and ached as her chest was wracked by each convulsion. Panic rose within her and her body began to scream,_ air, air, air! _The dullness within her head began to fade and she felt as if she were being pulled upward, her body suddenly weightless, but with one last violent heave of her chest, the blockage was cleared and she drew in a deep rasping breath.

The air was hot and thick and it burned her lungs, making her cough again, but, slowly, the air became less caustic and her lungs filled. For the first time her head hurt less and she discovered that she was lying on her back, head twisted to one side and arms draped awkwardly across her body The surface beneath her felt solid but coarse; it bit into her back at several points and she felt as if was bobbing up and down. It shook from time to time with terrible force and jostled her body, causing pain to flare from her head to her toes.

As her mind drifted, torn between pain and unconsciousness, she realized that the darkness over her eyes had lifted. She could see shapes now and they were slowly resolving into objects that she could understand. Strands of white blond hair fell in front of her eyes and she tried to look past them, to see where she was.

Dark smoke swirled around her, billowing high into the air, but she was able to glimpse through its haze the trunk of a tree and its many branches. She looked again, confused as to why the branches were nearly completely straight and downward slanting. No, it wasn't a tree, the trunk was far too smooth and the branches weren't branches but rope. A gust of wind parted the smoke and she saw beyond the column of wood a great swath of fabric stained black and peppered with holes. She finally understood: it was a mast and a sail; she was on a ship!

She followed the mast down to the deck and there she saw people dressed in uniforms scurrying about. Some held muskets, others held buckets or round shot or rope, and still more held nothing at all. She saw bodies, too, which lay silently still, much like her own. She coughed. No, she wasn't like them, she was still here, she was still alive. She tried to move, she _wanted_ to move, to prove to herself that she wasn't lifeless. But her body rebelled against the effort, hot fire pouring through her veins, and she would have cried out if her vocal cords hadn't been paralyzed by shock.

What was _wrong_ with her? Why couldn't she move? She looked down at herself, half in an attempt to distract herself from the pain, half to assess her physical state. Her legs were stretched across the deck with her knees slightly bent. On her feet were thick black leather boots that rode up all the way to right below her knee and had tucked into them what she guessed was once a white pair of breeches. The pants were now dirtied and torn in several places and she thought absentmindedly that she'd never be able to wear them again and was sad that they were spoiled.

A white undershirt was tucked into the top of her breeches and covered by a similarly white vest with plain-faced gold buttons. Covering the vest was a steely blue cotton jacket whose front and sleeves were embroidered with gold thread and flanked with gold buttons bearing the crocus flower of...of…someplace she couldn't remember.

Draped across her arms and bunched up against her lower back was a fur-lined cloak dyed a rich dark blue. The cape was incredibly thick, meant to ward off the cold, but now it made her feel nauseatingly warm and she felt nearly suffocated in its heat. She mustered her strength to flip it over her with a movement of her left arm, causing something to rattle when she did. Intrigued, she looked down past her left leg and saw, attached to a black leather belt with a golden buckle that rested against her hips, a long gold-encrusted scabbard made of dark wood. Resting at the top of the scabbard was the guard and grip of a sabre.

Since when did she wear a sword, let alone pants? Since when did she even know how to _use _a sword? Her mind raced and she felt a stab of pain in her abdomen that made her torso shoot toward her knees. The pain continued and she saw now that the white vest had been punctured and many of its gold buttons torn off by a huge jagged piece of wood. For a moment she didn't understand, uncertain as to why the wood was so close to her and why it looked like it was stuck inside of her. Then she noticed that the vest was no longer white but red, and the blotch of color was spreading away from the giant splinter.

She touched the vest. It was wet and her fingers came away sticky. It was blood, _her _blood. The splinter _was _inside of her. She would have gasped if the pain at the realization hadn't overtaken her. She writhed on the deck, suddenly fully aware and overcome by the shock and horror of her state. Movement in the corner of her eye drew her attention and a tall man with broad shoulders clad in white trousers and a dark blue waistcoat with golden epaulettes rushed over to her. His long blond hair was tied back in a ponytail and blood trickled down his face from a long gash on his forehead.

The man's eyes were wide and frantic but resolved. He said something but she couldn't hear him over the low roar of a winter storm in her ears. He repeated his words and she could almost read his lips. He said them a third time and she understood that he was saying _Your Grace_. That was silly of him. She wasn't graceful, not in this state. Freya, she had a bloody spike stuck into her gut, how could he think she was anything to do with grace!

The man knelt beside her, his large hands hovering over her stomach, shaking as he held them there. He turned his head and bellowed something. He kept bellowing until a crowd dressed in similar blue and white uniforms had gathered around her. Her breaths were coming quickly now and she felt as if her heart would suddenly stop from its frantic pace. The vest was completely red and her chest and legs felt sticky and cold. She was very tired.

An urgency unlike one she had ever felt before filled her. She couldn't go, not yet. Where was...where was…but she couldn't remember who. The name was lodged in the back of her memory but it was slipping from her mind- _no!_ – she couldn't let it go, it was important, she knew it was important! _Please_, she pleaded, _please come back!_ But she felt it slip further and further away, becoming smaller and smaller until it she couldn't feel it anymore. It was gone, and she felt nothing. She closed her eyes, unable to fight the exhaustion anymore, and she felt a strong pair of hands against her back and under her legs as she was lifted up. Her vision blurred and darkness took her.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Elsa!"

The queen stirred in her sleep and shifted beneath the covers of her bed. Her room was quiet save the smacking of her mouth as she half-yawned before growing comfortable again. The lines of her face smoothed and relaxed.

"_Elsa_!"

The second cry shattered any semblance of sleep and Elsa bolted upright. Panic froze her and caution willed her to listen, to make sure she wasn't hearing things. But the voice was terrified and close, and she knew who it belonged to: Anna. Elsa threw the covers off and raced to her door, casting it open and bursting into the hall.

"ELSA!"

Pale moonlight filled the corridor and Elsa ran with her shadow down its length. The hall was deserted, neither guards nor staff present, and she wondered where they were, why they weren't rushing to Anna like she was, why they weren't trying to help. Anna's voice had grown more urgent but strangely hollow and more distant, though in her haste Elsa did not notice. She reached the heavy white and purple oak door and, without consideration for her own safety, wrenched it open and flew inside.

To her surprise, the room was in perfect condition. Elsa spotted her sister's head of copper hair half-submerged in blankets but otherwise unmolested. The queen's brow furrowed.

"Elsa!"

The cry pierced the air like the shriek of a banshee, its shrill airy note ringing in Elsa's ears. Anna had not moved, nor had anything else. Elsa steeled herself and approached the bed where her sister slept, her eyes locked on the mop of red that was so close to her heart. Her shin bumped the bottom of the wooden bed frame and she stopped. Anna's chest rose and fell with each soft breath. Elsa grabbed the corner of the bedding and tore it away.

A thunderclap split the room and a blinding magenta light poured into it. The air was ripped from Elsa's lungs and she fell, spinning downward until she could no longer sense the direction of her spiral. Just as quickly as it had begun, her descent stopped and she found herself before a blank white canvas. A figure appeared far in the distance, a small black dot against the ocean of white, and Elsa was pushed toward the figure at incredible speed. The invisible hand that fueled her advance withdrew and Elsa was thrust downward on her knees onto…ice.

Elsa looked up. The canvas was gone, replaced instead by the scene of a week ago that was forever etched in her mind: the day when she had lost the only thing that had really ever mattered. The frozen waters of the fjord ran before her, ships of all sorts clutched within its icy grasp. Snow swirled about and Elsa felt…cold. She shivered and wondered what had changed, why was she cold, why was she here, at this place?

Her mind began to race but then she saw something that gave her pause. The figure stood some ten yards away, obscured by snow, but the silhouette familiar. The queen willed the snow to part and it obeyed, clearing away from the figure and Elsa gasped: it was Anna. She was dressed in the same dress and cloak that she had worn on that day and her twin braids of copper flapped against her face. Elsa smiled and started to run forward but stopped. Something was wrong.

Anna dropped to her knees clutching her chest, her wide teal eyes pained and pleading. Elsa tried moving forward again, to rush to Anna's side, to hold her, to tell her she was there, but her body refused. Anna reached out with her other hand toward Elsa.

"Elsa! Please! Help me!"

Elsa wanted to yell out, to tell her that she was coming. She opened her mouth but no sound emerged. A thin layer of frost had begun to accumulate on Anna's legs and boots and was creeping steadily upward.

"Elsa, your magic! I'm going to freeze! Please!"

Locked in place, Elsa could only watch as her sister was covered in frost, her eyes frantic and sad. Elsa felt her soul begin to tear as breaks as jagged as the cliffs around her appeared deep in her heart. _Please_, Elsa pleaded, _please let me help her!_ Anna's mouth quivered for a final time before the ice ran up her neck and engulfed her head. Her teal eyes had turned an icy blue and her arm was stuck in its out stretched position, begging. Tears stung Elsa's eyes and ran hotly down her cheeks.

The dry laughter of the devil clapping cut through the roar of the blizzard and another figure emerged from the snow. The figure, a man, wore a beautiful white waistcoat trimmed with tan and red and his boots shone like obsidian even in the darkness of the storm. His auburn flicked about his face and he held a sword in his hand.

"Oh Elsa. You really did kill her this time, didn't you? No mercy for poor, sweet Anna."

Elsa felt a growl in her throat as her heart hardened and she glared fire at Hans.

"And to think I doubted whether you had it in you," Hans laughed with a satisfied fullness that cut straight through Elsa's heart and despite the chill in her body, her face flushed hot with rage. Hans smirked. "I suppose I should thank you for doing my work for me." He raised the sword high in the air and, as Elsa watched with eyes wide and screaming, brought it down toward her sister's frozen body. The blade made contact with the frigid form but did not stop, nor break, nor shatter. The sword cut clean through and a million fragments of electric blue ice were thrown in all directions.

_Elsa! _cried the wind. But Elsa could not answer.

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><p>Elsa shot up in bed. Her heart was pounding out of her chest and the sheets were slick with sweat. She was shaking. <em>It was just a dream<em>, she told herself, y_ou're in your chambers, in your bed. _Elsa pressed her fingers against her forehead, trying to focus and calm her breathing. _You're alright, Anna's safe_. She drew her legs up under her chin and clamped her still shaking hands around them, willing them to be still. After a time her heart slowed and the tremors ceased.

The bedchamber was coated in a layer of snow and ice, a product, no doubt, of her unconscious turmoil. Elsa could have removed it but she liked the feeling of the sharp crystals against the bare soles of her feet as she pushed her covers aside and hopped off the bed; it was a comforting feeling and it made her feel safe. She lit some candles, careful to withdraw the chill from around the wicks so that the fire would take. The orange glow of the flames soon mingled with the blue light of the moon coming in through the window and made the room glitter like a cave of gemstones as the flickering light played with the ice that coated every surface.

The queen made her way absentmindedly to her desk and found it piled high with the remnants of yesterday's work: papers and letters, as well as massive leather-bound tomes covering subjects ranging from economics to politics to strategy. Elsa had read most of the books before; in fact, she had read them multiple times. She had always been inquisitive as a child and learning had come easily and without much coaxing. Reading about distant lands and places had fascinated her just as much as reading about how plants and animals grew and lived, or how cities functioned.

When she had read, she had pretended that she was playing a game with herself, to see how much she could learn. She had consumed volume after volume, often staying awake well through the night and into the morning. But at its core, the game had been hollow, even if she hadn't admitted it to herself. The countless hours spent in her room separated from everything and everyone in the outside world had needed to be filled with something, and she had filled them with reading. Losing herself in the pages, she had been able to escape the tedium of her anxious existence, at least for a little while.

Her parents had encouraged her habit, knowing she would need that base of knowledge when she became queen. And that was why she had pulled the books from the library. She was queen now, albeit a queen who had let herself be ruled by fear for far too long. In that fear she had neglected many things, including her studies and her mind, but she would correct that. She had to correct it because that knowledge was power: power to defend herself, her kingdom, her Anna. She was determined to rule, and she would rule _well_...or at least so she hoped; there was still so much she didn't know.

A knock came at the door, so softly that Elsa didn't hear it. With a groan, the door was pushed open, its layer of frost cracking apart as it moved.

"Elsa?"

Elsa whirled, startled by the soft voice. Anna stood in the doorway, her hair unbraided but not completely disheveled, not yet anyway. A warm smile rested on her face.

"Are you alright? I thought I heard you call my name."

Had she? Elsa tried to remember, but the memory of the dream caused a shiver run down her back. Anna saw the discomfort flash across her sister's face and she stepped further into the room, but something crunched beneath her feet. She looked down: it was snow.

"Oh," Anna said quietly, the warmth of her eyes replaced by concern. "Another one?"

Elsa nodded and sank into her desk chair, her head bowed. Anna scrunched her mouth from side to side as she decided what to do before making her way slowly over to the desk, her feet growing colder with each step.

"Ah, ah, oow, eh, ow, ah!" Anna muttered as she bounded the rest of the distance to the chair and slid to a stop, bumping into its side and jostling Elsa. "Sorry," Anna whispered.

"It's alright," came the cold response.

Anna looked around the room, thinking. "Do you want to tell me about it?" she offered. Elsa shook her head. "Elsa, you know it's not a good idea to keep things bottled up. You know how it-"

"Eats at me, I know, I know!" Elsa snapped and snow began to fall around the desk in heavy sheets. Anna wrung her hands and wondered if she should leave, but Elsa spoke. "It was about _that _day, on the fjord, when you…" Her voice trailed off, her face pained.

"When I swapped lives with a block of ice?" She laughed, trying to warm Elsa's mood, but her sister remained quiet. "Elsa, but I'm here now, safe and thawed, not a single frozen cell in my body!"

"It's just-" Elsa started, but choked, her voice suddenly filled with emotion. "I- I- Anna," Elsa looked up and Anna met her watery gaze. "I don't want to hurt you again. _Ever_."

Anna smiled sympathetically. "It's okay, you won't! I mean, you did actually kinda, uh, kill me-" Elsa flinched at the word and she looked away, but Anna followed quickly with, "but then you saved me! We saved me! We saved each other!" Anna paused and she put a hand on her sister's shoulder. She spoke slowly, her tone serious. "Something…happened…on that day. I felt…different afterward, in more ways than one. I don't know how or why but I think, when you – we – thawed me, I became protected from your magic somehow. The air felt less cold, and my cloak felt warmer than it should have. I don't think you _could _hurt me even if you tried."

Elsa sniffled. She had felt something too on that day. When she had hung so desperately on her sister's lifeless form, her life shattered and ripped beyond any means of repair, she had looked into a pit so black it had chilled her soul. None of the pain that had come before, not the deaths of her parents, not the fear that had raised her, could compare. Her will and strength had been utterly voided and she lay before the gates of Hel, unwilling and uncaring to get up, waiting to be carried away to the end.

But something had called to her through the darkness. The soft warmth of a summer breeze had whispered in her ear, calling to her in tones she knew so dearly. "Elsa," the voice of five-year-old Anna had said, "come play with me! Don't you want to play?" Like the rays of the rising sun melting the night's frost, her heart had warmed and the body against which she had pressed had grown less cold.

Consumed by her sorrow, Elsa had not fully noticed the transformation until it was complete. When she heard the exasperated noise of her sister breathing again, she had ignored it, convinced that it was a mockery designed to push her further into the darkness. It wasn't. The body beneath her had moved and Elsa had had restored that which she had so violently lost. As she had looked up into her sister's eyes, becoming lost in their sea of teal, the darkness had been swept away and a boundless relief had filled her.

In that moment, as they had looked at each other, their hearts had met. The sensation was different than anything she had ever experienced and it had overpowered all of her senses with the force of lightning striking a mountaintop. It had felt stronger than love, deeper than love, and it had giving her a peace greater than one she had ever known. In the days that followed, she had tried to rationalize it, to understand it, but those answers had continued to elude her.

"I felt something too," Elsa said, unsure but reluctant to elaborate, "but I don't- I don't know what." Her eyes hardened and she looked down at her hands, flexing them slowly. Venom filled her voice. "And even so, I certainly will not risk anything anymore, not with this _monster _inside of me-" Elsa felt someone grab her hands and she looked up to see that Anna had moved in front of the chair and kneeled, taking Elsa's hands in hers. Her face was stern.

"There isn't a monster inside of you; only _you _is inside of you, and you are beautiful, Elsa." Elsa let out a ragged half-sob, half-laugh, and looked at her sister's smiling face. "You are the smartest, bravest, strongest person I know, and you are _my _sister. Even if you were a monster I would still love you."

Elsa wrenched her wrists out of Anna's grip and threw her arms around her sister, dragging her upwards into a hug. Her body shook against Anna's as their tears ran together and she nestled her head into her sister's neck. "Thank you," Elsa whispered through her sobs. "Thank you." "I love you," Anna said. "I love you too," Elsa said.

The moment dragged on and Elsa bathed in the security and acceptance of her sister's embrace. As she did, the snow and ice throughout the bedroom lifted into the air and formed a fine white mist, and then disappeared all together. When they drew apart and had wiped their eyes, Anna spoke again. "Your power, your gift can be…shocking, sometimes, particularly to others, but, Elsa, it's like dancing, or riding a bike! You will be able to control it, you just have to, you know, practice."

Elsa laughed. "I have been practicing, and had practiced," she said, thinking of her achievements with her palace of ice. "It's simply hard to understand how to control it best."

Anna smiled and squeezed her wrists. "Then we just have to keep practicing. And when I say 'we', I mean you and me. We can do this. Together." Anna hugged her sister and kissed her cheek. When she drew back, her eyes wandered and a strange look appeared on her face.

"What?" Elsa said, suddenly concerned.

"Huh? Oh, nothing. It's just- it's weird, being in this room again for the first time in, well, forever," Anna looked solemnly at the open door. "Having been on the other side of that for so long I…I didn't know if I'd ever be in here."

Elsa thought she might cry again and brought her sister into another hug. "I know, but you never have to worry about that ever again. You are always welcome here." She kissed Anna on her the top of her coppery-red mop and aimed another at her cheek. As Elsa neared, Anna turned her head, unaware of the impending kiss, and Elsa felt her lips brush not Anna's cheek but her mouth. Elsa's eyes flew open at the unexpected sensation and felt a jolt of electricity run down her spine and into her heart. Elsa pulled back.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly.

"It's alright," Anna said, her lips spreading into a goofy grin. "I kinda liked it."

Elsa covered her face with her hand in an attempt to conceal the rising color in her cheeks, mortified at what had just occurred. Anna laughed and pulled Elsa's hand down. "Silly, it was just a kiss. You don't have to be embarrassed." Elsa smiled weakly and, after a few deep breathes, calmed the twittering of her heart.

Anna smiled lovingly and while Elsa looked at Anna's sweet face, her eyes and face glowing in the flickering of the candle light, she was struck by just how beautiful her sister was. She remembered feeling the same way on her coronation day when they had seen each other fully for the first time as grown adults. She remembered how absolutely sublime Anna had looked in that green patterned gown, the one that brought out her eyes in the most irresistibly adorable way. Elsa had been so proud of how beautiful the woman her sister had grown into had been, both in body and in spirit, but the pride had been marred by deep pangs of guilt of having had no hand in it; she had not been there for Anna, and she continued to regret that deeply.

But here, now, her sister's beauty was intensified to the point of overriding the guilt and shame. Everything about her was stunning; her round eyes that seemed to change color with the light, her small adorable nose that twitched when she was happy, the freckles that dusted her face, her long coppery hair, even strewn about as it was. She looked so much like their mother.

Taking Anna's hands in hers, she said, "You are so beautiful."

It was Anna's turn to blush and color quickly spread across her face at such a compliment from her, as Anna saw it, divinely gorgeous sister. "Thanks, Elsa," she said meekly, an abashed smile resting on her lips. Having gone so long without so much as a word or look of love or affection, she was still getting used to the adoration from her older sister. But, unsurprisingly, she was discovering that she liked it. A lot.

She would have continued to bask in the good feelings of that moment, content to have Elsa hold her hands and be able to look at the face that had been withheld from her for so long, but the lateness of the hour finally overtook her. Anna yawned and her face contorted in the most amusing way, making Elsa giggle in spite of herself. "I think it's probably time for us to get back to bed."

Anna nodded sleepily and got up. Elsa let her hold her hand until they were at the door. Giving it a last squeeze, Elsa said, "Goodnight, Anna." "Gerdnit, Els," Anna slurred and let go of her hand. Elsa watched until Anna had turned the corner and then yawned herself and closed the door.

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><p>As the sun rose, casting its first light across a land many leagues from Arendelle, a man, powerful and rich, dabbed his quill in ink. With a flurry and a stroke perfected over many decades, he signed his name to the freshly-written letter before him with. Finished, he returned the quill to its well and carefully folded the parchment and placed it in an envelope.<p>

The man reached across his desk for a small ladle that contained molten wax and poured a measured amount of it onto the back of the envelope. Replacing the ladle for his seal, he gripped the smooth wooden handle of the stamp and pressed it firmly into the fresh wax. He examined the seal, the body of a lioness clutching a bundle of arrows in her claws sunk into the now cooling wax, and, satisfied, added the letter to the already tall stack of similar envelopes piled neatly on his desk.

"Kenic!"

The scuffling of boots on stone echoed through the tall, candle-lit chamber and a man dressed in a simple gray tunic appeared. "Yes, M'lord?"

"Kenic, this correspondence," the man said, gesturing to the pile, "is of the utmost importance. Please see that is delivered to our quickest couriers and bid them haste."

"Now, M'lord? The couriers will be well asleep at this-"

The man slowly lifted his gaze from the desk too meet Kenic's. His eyes burned like molten steel and his lips hung in a limp frown, communicating quite clearly his answer and his lack of patience with the current line of questioning.

"I will see them along now, M'lord," Kenic said

"Good," the man said as Kenic made his way to the desk and scooped up the pile. Kenic bowed slightly and then hurried out of the chamber, letters in hand. The man waited until the echo of footfalls had faded well into the hall before pushing his chair back and standing. The man clasped his hands behind his back and, out of habit, moved the fingers of his right hand back and forth while he thought.

The sun had nearly broken the horizon and rays of pink light shimmered in the waters of the harbor outside his window. Bells could be heard signaling the changing of the watch on the ships anchored there, their sails bobbing back and forth as gentle waves lapped at their hulls. Most were frigates, third- and fourth-rates, but a handful of triple deck first-rates bearing nearly ninety guns apiece mingled about. The ships in the bay were only a fraction of his total strength, but even they were a testament to his power.

Yes, he was powerful, but his eyes looked beyond his current holdings and mused whether the lands there too should fall under his control. He enjoyed the game; the pursuit of victory far afield using any and all means was the most exhilarating competition he had ever participated in, and he had been competing for most of his life. He had built his dynasty from the ground up, weathering storm after storm and emerging undefeated. His domain had grown and his coffers had filled and yet he was still always vigilant to watch for opportunities that might prove advantageous for his interests.

As it would happen, recent events in Arendelle were decidedly just that. Rumors of great elemental power had spilled over the borders into every neighboring country and caused quite a stir. Some wondered whether the monarchy was still viable; others grew concerned if they would be quickly beset by armies commanded by a wraith cloaked in snow. The man doubted the latter but found the climate of uncertainty and fear to be rather amenable to his purposes, for men who were afraid could be more easily persuaded. The man grunted at the thought and a nearly unnoticeable smile brushed his lips. He would act, that was all but certain, but only after he had received responses to his letters.

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><p><strong>Author's Afterword<strong>: Phew, that was a lot, certainly more substantial than the Prologue. Hopefully you guys will be able to digest it given enough time. I tried my best to give voice to both Elsa's and Anna's emotional and pyschological state post-Great Thaw; it was a hell of a thing to wrestle with though. Hopefully you guys enjoyed at least some of it, and, as always, please feel free to let me know how you feel! Criticism and feedback is always, always appreciated if you would be so inclinded to offer any. Else, onward and upward we go!


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